Ramps/Climbing the Platform

[Travis Hoffman]

[Aside - this is the second time I've written up a post for this. I clicked the post button and received the dreaded 5:00 AM backup message - all content lost. Hey Brandon - a GREAT feature would be for the website to capture our post text and save it just prior to posting so it will still be there when we click the back button after a posting issue. Is that even possible?]

Please discuss your design ideas and planned methods of climbing the platform and the related strategy of providing ramps or other mechanisms to assist others in climbing the platform. I've not seen much discussion in this area (perhaps for good reason).

Before doing so, please look at the following two pictures of the kitbot on the platform - visualize bumpers adding 6.5" of length and width to the robot that you see:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/34537?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/34538?

My observations:

• Not a whole heck of a lot of room up there, huh, especially along the narrow 32" platform dimension - that will be the "landing zone" for any robots driving up a ramp-assist robot. The thought of The Price is Right game "Cliff Hangers" comes to mind, complete with yodeling and loud, crashing sounds. It also evokes images of many large, 4WD lemmings plunging off the cliff into the sea.
• Unless I've misinterpreted the field drawings and Team Update #3, to climb onto the platform from the bump sides, the so-called "easy" way up, your frame + bumpers will have to be less than 32 inches wide. That's a relatively compact robot (25.5" frame dimension or smaller, with a similar reduction in the other dimension to retain proportion). If you want to climb onto the platform from the bump, you will make the packaging of all your robot components even more of a challenge.
• If somehow a "standard-sized" robot manages to get onto the platform, I wonder how that robot will manage its "junk in the bump[ers]". That is, how will it keep its bumpers from sticking out past the platform and interfering with partner robots trying to hang from the ground? Will the robot be designed to be able to have some of its wheels/tread hang off the edge of the platform to give its partners more room? Will those wheels/tread remain above the platform plane, retaining the robot's ELEVATED status? Is there a risk that the hanging robot might push the platform robot off the platform if the platform robot cannot get out of the way?

I'm going to suggest that if climbing the platform is one of your primary strategies, you keep all of these points in mind - ESPECIALLY the considerations for any partners trying to hang.

Finally, something tells me the GDC didn't accidentally arrive at these platform dimensions. If they did, well...it's better to be lucky than good.